At the Farmington 5-6 Campus, fifth-grader Julianna Tomasi took first place, followed by second-place winner and fellow fifth-grader Karan Choudhary, in the district spelling bee.

Students prepared for the spelling bee using a variety of materials provided by Scripps Howard and Merriam-Webster.

"We pick one winner and they go on to the competition in the metro area at the Charles Wright Museum downtown," said Reading teacher Auleen Jarrett, who organizes the spelling bee.

"We went 32 rounds and 166 words," she said.

Finalists were given 300 words to prepare after the grade-level competitions two weeks ago.

Jarrett was assisted at the bee by sixth-grade teacher Carla Young and fifth-grade teacher Sherry Parks.

"The students take this very seriously and they study," Jarrett said.

Headed downtown

Tomasi now advances to The Detroit News spelling bee March 13 at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit. The winner of that bee will advance to the Scripps National Spelling Bee near Washington, D.C., The winner will advance to the national spelling bee May 24-29.

The program is open to students who have neither turned 16 nor passed beyond the eighth grade, and who attend schools that officially enroll with the program for the current academic year.

Tomasi said that she studied diligently.

"Every night my mom and dad would test me on the words," Tomasi said.

Tomasi's mother, Barb, who attended the competition, pointed out that her brother Dominic also won the bee when he was in the fifth-grade and went on to the Detroit competition.

Choudhary prepared for the bee by studying "for two hours each night."

Alex McNeece, director of curriculum services at Garden City Schools, was also in attendance at the spelling bee. He was impressed with the 12 finalists representing the fifth- and sixth-grades.

'A lot of hard work'

"Everyone of those students was a champion in their own class," McNeece said. "What I like about events like this is when you work really hard, great things happen. They put a lot of hard work into this. They didn't just wake up this morning and come up on stage. I'm so proud of each and every one of them."